Sunday, November 17, 2013

TRADE ALERT: large amounts of synthetic lab grown diamonds are being mixed with natural diamonds in parcels

Persistent reports that large amounts of synthetic lab grown
diamonds are being mixed with natural diamonds in parcels of melee and
pointers.

After more than 600 synthetic colorless diamonds were
submitted to the International Gemological Institute without disclosure, the
lab is warning the trade about the possibility of more undisclosed stones on
the market.

According to an IGI Trade Alert issued last week, the
diamonds were grown by the CVD process and submitted to the lab’s facilities in
Antwerp and Mumbai. The dealer submitting the stones had no idea they were
man-made, and paid prices equivalent to natural diamonds, IGI says.

“I believe there are other undisclosed colorless synthetic
diamonds out there,” IGI Worldwide co-CEO Roland Lorie tells JCK. “But we just
don’t know how many. I don’t think the volume is huge. You just wonder how this
parcel got out there, and how many else are left.”

Lorie adds: “In the past we have received two stones here,
three stones there. But it’s always been in small volumes. When you get so many
stones, it’s an entirely different story.”

The IGI alert was followed by an alert issued by De Beers’
Diamond Trading Company, which noted that undisclosed stones had also appeared
at the National Gems & Jewellery Technology Administrative Centre (NGTC)
lab in China.

The stones in question were mostly 0.30 ct to 0.70 cts., F
to J colour, VVS to VS clarity, and internal characteristics included feathers,
pinpoints, and small dark crystals. Polish, symmetry, and cut were either
“excellent” or “very good,” with bruted or faceted girdles. All stones were
Type IIa, characteristic of CVD synthetics.